Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-11-03
The Nations Growth.
New York Herald.

Here is curious fact, which illustrates
our unexpected expansion in territory and
population. Just after the revolutionary
war Lord Sheffield published book in
London entitled "Observations on the
Commerce of the American States"
Sheffield was, to DE sure, not over friendly
to us, his loyalty to the Crown giving a
possible color to his views, but he was
supposed to BE a careful and shrewd OBJ
server. At any rate, his statements were
received in England as reliable and they
acted as balm to the British disappoint-
ment at the loss of the colonies.
He declared unreservedly that the
American continent was practically value
less for commercial purposes. 1t was
simply vast wilderness, which could
never be thickly populated, with certain
natural obstacles which rendered any ex-
tensive commerce impossible. The states
of the Atlantic sea board, he admitted,
might in time rise to some Importance,
but the vast tract of inland territory was
hardly worth consideration. He ventured
the prediction that 'settlers beyond the
Allegheny mountains can not become
commercial" because there is no possible
outlet to the sea for their products. These
mountains, mis- Lordship declared, were
barrier to pros perity that could never
be overcome.
If he could return from his grave now
start in Pullman car from Philadelphia
travel over the AIeghanies at speed
which would make each particular hair
stand on end, and SO for several days and
nights at the same rate of speed through
| countless villages, towns and crowded
cities, through what was in his day an
| almost impenetrable forest, over the
prairies, of which he never dreamed, and
! then over the Rockies, to find an immense
population on the Pacific coast, he would
| probably entertain as slender an opinion
of his prophetic powers as we do.
If he had been told, after the publica-
| ton of his book, that this great wilder
ness, which he believed to be a barrier to
our western advance, would be changed
into fields of grain upon which EnRlisa
lords and English workmen would Largely
depend for their daily bread; that the
| Mississippi river in the course of three
generations, would flow through the gee
graphical center of q republic number
| ing &c, 100000 people, and that the whole
| continent of Europe would be yearly de-
pendant upon the, abundance of
our crops, his Lordship would have hook
81 UPON bHe speaker as Iduallc OF Il mao
man.
At the time when Lord Sheffield made
his lugubrious prop hecy the total area
of the United States was ,S44 square
miles. In 1903, the Province of Mouisi-
ana was coded, contrasting an area of 1,
I'll ,931 square miles, and extending north
ward from the mouths of the Mississi ppi
to the British possessions and westward
to the Pacific ocean. In 1919 we acquired
Florida, 59,268 square miles; in 1916,
Texas, containing SIG, 1873 square miles;
in 1848, the first Mexican cession of 545,-
793 square miles was made; in 1858, a
second Mexican cession of a5ys35 square
miles, and lastly, in 1867 the Russian
cession of Alaska containing -577, $3.50
square miles. Th4s makes the total area
Of the United States 3;6O5js84 square
miles, or more than four times what it
was in 1887
The present sizeef the Republic and
our exhaustless material resources en-
phasize our res possibilities and duties as
American citizens.